I've been an industrious little girl today. I wrote two articles this morning for the employee newsletter and I'll probably get more done before the day's over. It's totally not like me to be this committed on a Friday. This is the day I usually slack a little. Isn't that terrible?
I didn't work out last night. Come on, cut me some slack, it was my birthday. We went to The Brick Oven and shared a prosciutto-mushroom-gorgonzola pizza ... nice. But I only ate 2 slices at the restaurant and then half a slice later that night. Normally I would have eaten 3 or 4. So I had some self-control there. And this morning I only had 1 Special K bar because we are going to PF Chang's today to celebrate the birthdays of myself and my boss. Cool. And yes, I do plan to work out today...there is a yoga class at 4:30 so if I can sneak out of work unnoticed today, I might make it.
Mark gave me a spice rack for my birthday last night. It was nice and thoughtful of him, especially since we did need it, but it wasn't what I was hoping for. There are a lot of things on my wish list - and I did give him hints - but that wasn't one of them. We do have a lot of spices and we do need something to organize them, but for one thing this rack came with a bunch of spices - which we didn't really need. Plus the rack's holes will only hold spice jars of a certain circumference, and the plastic jars we have right now aren't big enough to stay in there. So now I have to start buying the spices in bulk and put them in these jars. It's just a bunch of trouble.
Oh well. I guess I can't blame Mark. And it's not like I can't go out and buy what I want for myself. In fact, I am going to this week. I want some clothes for yoga. No more wearing ratty jogging pants and t-shirts. I'd like to find some pants like this and maybe some tops like this, but we'll see what turns up. J.Crew isn't at my usual mall so I think I am just going to go to Academy to find what I want. Their stuff is a little cheaper, too.
Major excitement on the freelancing front. Not only did the editor say he liked my piece, he offered me the chance to do another one! Only it's in a town that's 1 1/2 hours away. Hmm. Is it worth 2 hours in the car to earn a few hundred bucks and some impressive clips from an impressive paper? What am I saying? Of course it is! This will be a very impressive addition to my portfolio. I can't wait till my first piece gets published.
It looks like things are finally coming together on the writing front for me. I've been working so hard and now it's paying off.
Z Tejas was good, but I ate too much. I was absolutely starving because I didn't eat much this morning - I was preparing for the lunch. Now I probably won't be hungry for The Brick Oven tonight. Ah, well. Perhaps I can sneak out early today, grab my workout clothes and rush to the gym before everyone else gets there. The place is f'ing filled with all those New Year's resolutions people. People who haven't been to the gym in 20 years, so after Jan. 1 they all decide to descend on the place. They don't wipe down the machines after getting them all sweaty. They stand there like idiots on treadmills that are obviously broken and, after messing with them for five minutes, finally turn to me and say, "How do you work this thing?" They open the group exercise room door during yoga, drowning out our nice soothing music with the main room's Avril Lavigne soundtrack. They wear jeans and collared shirts while running.
I know it might sound like I'm being elitist and nasty here, but these little things just get under my skin. I know that I was once a newbie too - less than a year ago, in fact. And there are new gym-goers who are courteous and considerate. But there are so many who aren't. I know that they'll either learn in time or drop out, but in the meantime it just means that I can't get a treadmill anytime after 5 p.m.
Today is going to be a major day of eating for me. Like, seriously. In a couple of hours my aunt is coming to take me to Z Tejas and then tonight I'm going to The Brick Oven with Mark. So accordingly, I cut down my new Weight Watchers cereal bars from 2 to 1 and only got a tall caramel macchiato this morning. I usually don't get Starbucks - I make my own coffee right here in the office - but since it's my birthday I figured I would treat myself. I made sure to get it fat-free so there's less guilt. I think a small latte with skim milk is only like 70 calories or something. I think a whole-milk latte is about 200. So there's calorie savings right there.
I know I haven't mentioned this for a long time, but I've decided that my calorie intake has got to be reduced if I'm going to lose any weight at all. I've been holding at 129-130 for more than two months now and my waistline doesn't show any signs of shrinking at all. Yet I do at least 45 minutes of exercise six days a week. I think the only answer now is diet modification. It sucks, but I'm going to bite the bullet and do it. In fact, I've already started doing it. Here's my food intake from yesterday:
2 Weight Watchers bars at 90 calories each; 2 cups of coffee with sugar at 15 cals each (out of Equal).
1 chicken enchilada, about 350 calories, and a Diet Coke
Snack: Four whole-wheat graham cracker squares with crunchy peanut butter for a total of about 300 calories; skim milk at about 50 cals
Braised chicken breast with a little olive oil and lots of zucchini and tomato, about 350 calories, and a Diet Coke
Dish of vanilla ice cream with hot fudge, about 400 calories
Okay, so maybe yesterday's food wasn't all that commendable. But it's less than 2,000 calories and that certainly beats what I've been doing - getting Starbucks scones and bacon-egg-cheese biscuits for breakfast, eating heavy Thai for lunch and finishing off with something unhealthy for dinner. Little by little, I'll get it fine-tuned.
The Great Yoga Experiment continued last night with an hourlong session with my favorite instructor. I love going on Wednesday nights but last night was the last class at that time, because nobody else usually comes but me. I was anticipating another private session yesterday, but some chick came in and dashed those hopes. She was a newbie and kept looking to me the whole class - if I took a little longer than normal to release a pose, she held on longer too. It was weird, because in yoga classes I'm usually the one who doesn't know what she's doing. So it felt good to be looked up to, if only in that small way.
I was doing the shoulder stand last night when I realized exactly how big my butt is. It's huge. There's no nice way to say it. And I'm not talking huge in that Jennifer Lopez kind of way. Believe me, J.Lo would not stand for this kind of butt. You can bet she'd be in the gym five hours a day trying to get rid of that thing. I think that's one of the main reasons I can't go any lower than a size 10 in pants. My rear and hips are just too wide to be any smaller. I'm going to have to lose some major fat to drop a size. I know that my hipbones are wide-set but there is a little bit of cushioning surrounding them as well. If I can just melt that off, it might work.
In other, happier news, I have decided to start freelancing in earnest. I'm tired of this 8-to-5, Monday-Friday deal. I want to be my own boss. I want to pick and choose what kinds of stories I do, and sleep till 10 if I feel like it. So I'm going to do freelance work on a part-time basis and then maybe, about a year from now when I have good contacts and steady work, give up the security of a full-time job. I really admire freelancers. Half the time, they don't know where their next paycheck is coming from. With advertising revenues being the way they are, editors are pickier than ever, so competition is rough at the publications that pay their writers decently. The other half of the time, writers get assignments, but then the editors freeze up when they're asked to pay.
I just wrote my first query yesterday, to a magazine headquartered here in town. Here's to hoping it at least gets read.
I can't believe I forgot to mention that tomorrow is my birthday. Yep, that's right, I will hit the big 2-4 at 4:20 a.m. tomorrow. Yeah, I was born at 4:20...I guess I was born to smoke pot. (Note: I don't do anything like that. I am many things but not a pothead.)
Gotta start writing the employee newsletter...God, this sucks.
Suck ass meeting ended a while back. It really didn't suck all that much. This job doesn't suck all that much - but I'd still rather be at home. Some days I have visions of marrying Mark and becoming a stay-at-home wife (not mom). I'd wake up around 10, eat my breakfast while watching some inane morning show and then saunter to the computer, write to my heart's content, then go to the gym and do a little housework, leaving just enough time to fix a delicious dinner in the evening. Whew.
Then I snap back to reality and realize how boring that would be, sitting at home all day, with no one but the cats to keep me company. Sure, I could make some housewife friends and we could take scrapbooking classes or something, but I suspect that said friends would not be interested in watching Reservoir Dogs or eating extra-extra spicy pad thai.
So it looks like I will stay a working girl for the time being. Pass the office coffee.
Okay, I lied. I didn't come back after noon. I was just so busy trying to get all the reporting and writing done for that piece that I just totally ignored everything else. But yes, I did get it done, e-mailed it to the editor last night - so I'm just waiting now to see what he thinks of it. It's been so long since I wrote a newspaper story. It felt really good and in some ways, made me sad that I'm not still in newspapers. Who knows - maybe if I do well on this one, they'll keep giving me assignments and eventually offer me a staff position. Stranger things have happened, and that's how I got my job at the Tuscaloosa News all those years ago - started out freelancing.
I'll put up a link to the story whenever it comes out - should be on the newspaper's Web site.
In exercise news, I did go to the gym yesterday. I snuck out of work early and got there at 3:45, and it was so nice and uncrowded. Free treadmills everywhere. I walked/ran/biked for 45 minutes and then hightailed it home to do some writing. Tonight I'm going to take it a little easier and substitute 20 minutes of walking and an hour of yoga for my usual 45-minute cardio routine. Yeah, it takes longer but yoga feels just so good. I melt into the floor when it's over.
Okay, I have a suck ass meeting to go to, so I'll be back later. Really, I will.
While the cat is away, the mouse will play. Or rather, the mouse will work like a dog on a story that needs to be in to the Southwest editor by tomorrow. My boss is out for the day and I am using the opportunity to work on my freelance stuff. I've got an interview at 10 a.m. on campus, and I have NO idea where the building is. So I'm leaving an hour early to find a parking space, even though it would be like a 10-minute trip if I knew where I was going. Ah, the life of a journalist.
Light reading recommendation from Jen: If you guys haven't picked up a copy of Texas Monthly this month, go get it. There's a great story by Bob Schieffer on what he did during the assassination of President Kennedy - when he was still working for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. I dunno, maybe it's just interesting to me because I'm a writer, but give it a try nonetheless.
I did go to the gym last night. It was majorly crowded, I guess with all those New Year's resolutions people. Seriously, a month ago on a Monday it would have only been 2/3 of what it was yesterday. I couldn't get a treadmill for 25 minutes and I had to hang out on the recumbent bike, an activity I usually like to do after walking. But whatever. I felt pretty good, though my legs are still feeling tired from all that activity. Maybe 45 minutes at a time is not the way to go. Tonight will be more of the same, I guess, and then maybe some yoga at 7:30. There's a class going on tonight at this gym that I really like, but is further away than my local venue.
I'll be back before noon to let everyone know how the interview went.
Well, the meeting only lasted till 11. So here I am, back at my desk. I am ashamed to report that I did eat 1 1/2 bagels slathered with cream cheese spread. But I haven't eaten anything else so far, so as long as I behave I should be cool.
Movie Review: Hollywood Ending
First off, let me say that I love Woody Allen. I love Annie Hall and Hannah and Her Sisters and Manhattan and all of that stuff. But I didn't fall in love with this one. It was too much like an episode of I Love Lucy and not, well, Woody Allen enough. Woody Allen unsurprisingly plays a neurotic New York director whose career has gone down the tubes. He's been reduced to shooting deodorant commercials in Canada and is terribly depressed, until his ex-wife (Tea Leoni) encourages her Hollywood-Joe fiance to hire him as director of his production company's next film. The film is a remake of an old Hollywood classic and is supposed to be an easy job - until Woody Allen develops psychosomatic blindness. Yes, he gets so worried about the job that he makes himself blind. Now, with the help of his agent, his ex and various other people, Woody has to direct the picture, without the advantage of sight. What ensues is a mildly funny escapade that relies on a single joke - hey, Woody's blind, so he makes all these funny mistakes while directing and drives everyone else crazy! - and isn't Allen's best.
The cast of Hollywood Ending is stellar; Leoni is great as Woody's ex-wife, and Debra Messing is delightfully flaky as his live-in lover. But, again, the blindness gag gets old after a while, so I wasn't even upset when I got to the tacked-on, oh-isn't-that-convenient ending that magically solves all of Woody's problems.
This won't be long because I am fixing to rush out to an all-day meeting. What fun.
Nothing much has changed since last night...got up with relatively little struggle this morning and trucked it to work...almost beating the boss in again...now gotta sit in this meeting and avoid eye contact with the higher-ups so I'm not stuck on some time-consuming project. Blah. Work sucks. I'd really love to go back to grad school and pick up full-time. I did go part-time right after graduating, but whatever.
A rare Sunday entry, because things have slowed down here at home. Oscar (my cat) is on my lap right now, chillin'.
Mark wanted to go to Mass today, so we went to this church up the road. I haven't been to Mass in over three years. It kinda felt good to go back. The church was weird though - it was their first day in a new worship space, so there weren't any pews, just a bunch of folding chairs. No kneeling during today's service, obviously. We didn't do the Communion thing because of our long absence. But a positive experience nonetheless. I don't know if we'll be back to that particular church next week, but I'd venture to guess we'll attend some kind of worship service.
I also went to Target today and bought some dress slacks for Mark. He wants something nice to wear to church, and he doesn't own one pair of khakis that fit him. The man could not care less about clothing. He would be naked if I didn't shop for him. Still gotta get him a dress shirt though, so he can have at least one nice outfit.
I didn't do the exercise routine today, though I did on Friday and Saturday (40 and 45 minutes cardio, respectively. Go me). I figured I'd let my joints rest for one day. This always happens whenever I get too enthusiastic about working out - I get hurt, so I'm taking it slow this time. Tomorrow will be cardio again, and maybe a yoga class if there's one going on at a gym near me.
So it looks like the holidays are finally coming to an end. I love it and I hate it at the same time. Christmas is always such a nice time - the weather cools off a bit, there are decorations and everyone is excited. But then again, it throws your whole routine out of whack, what with the traveling and eating and all.
Weight's holding steady at just under 130, but I'm hoping with our revamped eating routine (Mark has agreed to some lighter dishes) it'll continue to drop. I can only hope.
Name: Jen Location: DFW, TX Occupation: Journalist WHY this stupid blog?: To lose the 20 pounds I've packed on since high school and to entertain you with stories about my fabulous life. Current Weight: 138 My Goal Weight: 115 Pounds to Go: 23
